Collection of Warmaster community House Rules

[The Dog]

Hello
I have been tasked with collecting Warmaster House Rules from the community.

So if you would like to share your Club/House Rules with us all please post them here.

Its anything that deviates from the Living Rule Book and the Army List that is deemed to be a House Rule or maybe it is an enhancement that you and your group use to “improve” play, then please share it.

Do not worry about the English wording it’s the intent that we are after.

Here is the format I would like you to use.

#?
House Rule (LRB page number if applicable)

Example (so 7 of use the following House Rule and it amends p62 of the LRB)

#7
Characters cannot be surrounded and killed.  (Enemy Moving through Characters p62)
If a character cannot move to a friendly unit within 30cm, he is considered to have been slain. A character can be blocked or surrounded by the enemy, but if an enemy displaces the character they are not destroyed, simply move the character up to 30cm to join a friendly unit, this might mean moving over/through enemy units.  They are destroyed if no friendly unit is within 30cm as per the rules.  It's not the character's personal movement distance that is used - it's just the distance to a friendly unit.

Thanks
The Dog

[The Dog]

By Wellspring
Heroic Combat: p63
In the regular rules, if a unit a character has joined is destroyed, then the character is destroyed with it. If these rules are in effect, if a unit which has been joined by a character is destroyed, the character is simply treated as if it had not been joined to a unit at all (that is, if this has happened in combat, this means it must move to join another unit; if the unit is destroyed by shooting, the character stand is simply left where the unit was). The exception to this rules is that when a unit with a character joined to it is destroyed by another unit with a character joined to it, then the character dies with its unit. You can safely assume that the defeated character has been killed or captured in a suitably cinematic scene of character-on-character violence.

[wellspring]

My suggestion comes from my Song of Ice and Fire adaptation. It is designed to make characters a little more robust in battle, and also to ensure that when they do die that the death is at least noteworthy.

Heroic Combat: In the regular rules, if a unit a character has joined is destroyed, then the character is destroyed with it. If these rules are in effect, if a unit which has been joined by a character is destroyed, the character is simply treated as if it had not been joined to a unit at all (that is, if this has happened in combat, this means it must move to join another unit; if the unit is destroyed by shooting, the character stand is simply left where the unit was). The exception to this rules is that when a unit with a character joined to it is destroyed by another unit with a character joined to it, then the character dies with its unit. You can safely assume that the defeated character has been killed or captured in a suitably cinematic scene of character-on-character violence.

This rule was intended to increase the relative importance of characters in battles, without turning the game into a skirmish game.

[The Dog]

Yes I like it, when two Heroes "duel" you know its to the death.

[jchaos79]

I like it too... specialy interesant when running a campaing.

[I do not know if in this threat discussion or opionions are allowed, if not, please erase the message]

[The Dog]

Discussion and opinions are welcome.   

[wmchaos2000]

Flyers.
Dont know the exact rule, but we say that if they can see an enemy unit, they can charge it.
Over any lower standing units, friend or foe.
It is nasty, we know, but it makes both sides much more careful during deployment and early advancement AND it is much more realistic/logic (if one can say so about a fantasy-turn-by-turn game of battle).

[calmacil]

I read somewhere (might be on here) that gamers shouldn't resort to WMA rules for WM. But there's two rules i like from WMA.

We're going to house rule no.1, not sure about rule no.2 (probably) It takes a little bit more work because you've got to record the hits, but i don't mind that.


1) Supporting units are worked out before casualties are removed.


2) Unresloved combats. You fight 2 rounds of combat max. If stands are still alive they remain in place, continuing to fight next combat phase.
The pursuing unit still gets it's bonus next combat. Any outstanding hits are recorded.

Obviously charging units could join in as well, if this happens the pursuing unit only gets his bonus against the unit he pursued (not the fresh charging unit)




The first rule makes infantry a bit more powerfull, which i think is needed in WM

[vincent]

FYI, 80% of active french players use WMA rules to play WM battles. We feel like it is a big improvment and I can tell you that several player that had stopped playing WM returned to the game since we use WMA.
We use the latest WMA rules, with additions for flyers, monsters and magic. We use unmodified WM army lists.

I would suggest you to try

[calmacil]

That's great news vincent 

I have the WMA rulebook. Is there more up to date rules? if so, where are they?

[vincent]

The updates to the base rules are here:
http://www.rickpriestley.com/

[ilfiniol]

2 erratas and 2 rules updates have been published. The best way to find theses files is to go on the official website of the publisher : warhammer historical : http://warhammer-historical.com/acatalog/Errata.html

[calmacil]

We've not actually tried this yet, but i'm going to suggest it to my opponents next game.

The experimental house rule is....
"On the first turn of the game all troops automatically pass their first order"

The reason could be something along the lines of ... "your units are inspired by a speech your general has just given you, and it's still fresh in their minds" or (was thinking of an evil army for this one)..."your units are scared of the threats from your general. His warnings are still fresh in their minds, you dare not fail"


After the first free move normal rules apply. This means if you decide to order the unit/brigade again you'll be at -1 for the 2nd order (and possibly other modifiers; range, terrain etc)

What do you think? too powerful?

I like the simplicity of the rule. It may favour some units i haven't thought of (might need to change it to "all units except flyers" ?)




PS. The reason for this is (i'm sure you've all known someone do this) my chaos opponent last game kept failing all his command rolls, alot of his units were stranded and didn't move the whole game. I felt it it hindered the overall game. Although it was nice to win, it was almost a guilty victory. Giving all units a free move might even things out.

[wellspring]

Dark Elf Spearmen as Phalanxes.

There's a slight gap in the dark elf spearmen strips, enabling them to be based facing the short edge ("shock" infantry). These units behave exactly like Pikemen from the Dogs of War army list (see note *1 on that last for details).

[Zelekendel]

I've long thought to simply allow units to move on initiative. However, this movement would have to be made straight forwards (no turning whatsoever!) and with their maximum normal movement rate (not any less!).
Of course, the normal rules already preclude units that moved on initiative from moving in the command phase, so this would not lead to extra movement for commanded units. This would simply represent standing orders or a general call to advance - we can assume troops know enough whether to keep moving or stop as required.

Thoughts?